What is Micromanagement?

No, it’s not about Starcraft; but it can be related though. Quoting Wikipedia:

In business management, micromanagement is a management style where a manager closely observes or controls the work of his or her subordinates or employees. Micromanagement is generally used as a negative term.

So yea, micromanagement is a bad thing. In an industry where motivation and passion are the ultimate requirements, anti-trust behaviour is the killer. If you don’t trust your colleagues / subordinates, then something is wrong. It’s either you or them. Which one is it going to be?

What makes you not trust your peers?

Take your last bad project and analyze your actions, your behaviours and also their actions and their behaviours. Write them down. What did you find?

• Did your peers change their way of talking to you?
• Did they approach you less often?
• Have they tried to cut the conversation short? Like, hurrying things up so they won’t have to talk to you?
• Have they stopped doing stuff the way you wanted?
• Did you start resenting their presence, the moment you even see them at the office?
• Did you start feeling they are not following your “orders” ?
• Have you been shouting and cursing more often?
• More headaches? More stress? Nausea?

I could spill a dozen more. I experienced these behaviours in some way a while ago. They are real and you can experience them as well, should you choose to.

How can I turn Micromanagement around?

You can choose not to micromanage your peers. Instead, you can lower your bar and let them manage the project they are working on. You just manage outer communication. They might even call quits. If that happens, you don’t need to panic; you’re not supposed to. You’re supposed to ask them what should change and share the learning experience with everyone in your company. I’m sure they’ll come up with an answer and I’m even more sure that the learning experience will be welcome and rewarding.

“Let’s talk.” Never do that!

If someone said that to me, I’d talk, sure; but not as comfortable as he wanted. This phrase is a threat. It doesn’t look one but it is, especially if you turn your back like David Caruso does. It gets even worse if he wants to talk to you in the meeting room.

If the subject is important, then you probably want to engage me:

• Reach out a smile and a chance for the both of you to figure the solution out.
• Listen to who you’re talking.
• Be honest with the both of you.
• Don’t explode. If you are, then probably you’ve reached the path of no return. Say you’re sorry, return to the basics and learn from the experience.

Ontem tive curiosidade de ver como estaria o projeto. Morri. Vejam por vocês.

Sem informação para quem entra, sem forma de registo, nada. E isto é só a página de entrada. Eu até tremo de pensar o que estará lá por dentro. Expresso as minhas condolências pela pobre alma que inventou o nome Zizuzi; em nada sugere “rede de procura e oferta de emprego”.

What is this IE 6 phenomenon anyway??

Internet Explorer 6 is the 8-year old Microsoft browser, it comes by default in Windows XP. There are already versions 7 and 8 for this browser. Version 6 is now extremely outdated as it doesn’t offer the best experience and quality when visiting a website. Web standards have evolved since the time and so upgrade is extremely recommended for all users.

Are you a designer? An aware one?

If you are, then you know that IE 6 is a PITA when it comes to designing a website or application. Its support for CSS 2 is not perfect and thus it causes a lot of frustration. In my case, it takes double the work (and money) to support websites in IE 6.

What about “those” clients? They only use IE 6!

If you have clients that still use IE 6, it really depends on what you wrote a contract for. If you promised to support it, well… there is nothing you can do. What you can do is prepare for the future.

Paul Boag said brilliantly:

The energy we are spending in dropping IE 6 should be used to make our clients realize the truth about IE 6, providing a lesser experience.

I agree 100% with Paul. We are being plain old silly by even considering tweaking what’s good. Old browsers should have an experience of their own. In the end of it all, what matters most is the content.

So this means the problem is not the browser?

YES, the problem is NOT the browser. The problem is what people make of it, both designers and users. Designers have the responsibility to warn the user about the lesser experience and say how they can enjoy the full show. Splitting CSS apart and delivering them according to each browser’s capabilities is key. If the full means upgrading, fine. Users will be able to choose now.

If they choose to upgrade, don’t be a fool, go help the guy! You will score good points.

Isto é só um pequeno leque do todo que aconteceu durante e depois da gala. Já lá vão 24 horas e metade já se me olvidou

A forja

1. O primeiro lugar foi atribuído aos representantes de Angola. Este par profissional com alegadamente 4 anos de experiência internacional, dançou 4 minutos em vez dos 2 como todos os outros. E não, ninguém acredita na falta de profissionalismo dos produtores quando dizem que o DJ se enganou a pôr a música deles.
2. O segundo lugar já tinha estado na televisão, parece que no programa da Fátima Lopes. Não há nada como um tachinho.
3. O terceiro lugar, que segundo muitos não fez nada de especial (além do strip dela), além de também ter aparecido na televisão, parece que são afilhados dos Irmãos Verdades. Cunhas não faltam por aqui, pois não…?

Só os que estavam a olhar para o júri é que conseguiram ver a cara de pau deles quando os vencedores foram anunciados.

Tratamento “VIP“ aos concorrentes

1. Tinham-nos dito que deveríamos estar no local da gala às 12h para ensaiarmos. Começámos apenas às 14h30. Ah esperem! Sabem quanto tempo demorou o ensaio? 2 minutos. Alguns nem sequer ensaiaram…! Super profissional.
2. Eu e muitos outros viemos do Norte e do Sul do país. Nós por exemplo, só em viagens, gastámos mais de 100€, só num dia. Juntem a semi final, o preço escandaloso dos bilhetes para a família que nos veio apoiar e somem tudo… Quanto nos foi ajudado? Zero.O mais escandaloso: os concorrentes internacionais tiveram a viagem de ida paga. Qual é a palavra parecida com xenofobia mas para os conterrâneos…? Hmm…
3. A única coisa que nos deram (de bom) para além da medalha no fim foi água. Foi-nos prometido um par de sapatos — nada. Foi-nos prometido o conjunto de workshops de Domingo — nada. Podia ter-nos sido oferecida uma refeição que fosse para conhecermos todos os concorrentes, sei lá… — nada.

Moral da história

Em especial para a PMPeventos, o falhanço é histórico. Não se vê na história (por acaso até sim, na edição do ano passado) tamanha corrupção na atribuição dos vencedores, tamanha falta de consideração pelos concorrentes e perigosa vontade de ganhar dinheiro à custa dos não-lisboetas. Fica a sugestão: experimentem começar por baixo e fidelizar as pessoas em vez de deitarem tudo a perder logo à primeira oportunidade que encontram para roubarem a carteira do povo. De mim, não vão ter mais clientes.

Tenho pena também de ver o júri tão mal comprado. Tenho um carinho muito grande por eles, mas é triste ver que integridade falha por todos os cantos. O que se viu nestas duas edições não instiga à confiança de ninguém e muito menos inspira os futuros participantes a o fazer.

Tu queres participar? “Eh pá, esquece…”

Today a client said to me:

You’ve been eating too much cheese, eh José?

He actually thought he was my only project – even if he was, I am not supposed to know everything, since he didn’t know how to approach me in the first place and didn’t write the specs of what he wanted well enough.

Clients, this is the truth. We as freelancers are providing a service for you. Say specifically what service it is you want us to do, don’t just fire an idea away. If you only have an idea, get it written down. Here’s a couple guidelines for you when approaching us.

1. If you can, personally reach us to discuss the idea open and friendly.
2. Be nice to us. We deserve good work experience too.
3. Always accomplish what we ask and let us do our job well.
4. Be ready to do whatever it takes. Remember, you’re paying for the job.
5. Let us reach you as nicely as we would like you to reach us. The worst thing it can happen in such a relationship is to get chills whenever your name shows up on the screen. Word of experience.
6. Pay us. If you feel paying it all in a bunch is too much in your mind, set reasonable milestones.
7. Golden rule: if you want to hire us again, make sure we want to be hired by you again as well; we can always say no.

It sure sounds like I’m pushing too much on you but I’m not. It’s all a matter of love and motivation. After all, if you want us to do a good job, we need to feel we’re doing a good job for a good person, so spoil us! Yea, spoil us. Make us feel good and enjoying the work we’re doing, we’ll feel like “Hey, this client deserves a treat!”, rather than “This guy is getting on my nerves, let me just take care of the business so I don’t see his face anymore…”. Smile when you’re talking to us, praise us when you see progress.

I had a client, Paul Kay, who deserved a special award because he praised and kept motivating me so much he made me want to do his site smooth and silky, and fast too! I did his website in a week, for the very first time in my life. We ended up friends and he told he would love to refer me to other people because of the way he made me feel, not actually the other way around.

PS: Freelancers, we should do the same thing, of course! We should praise our client for what he does and motivate him to be on track with our requests the whole time. Love is reciprocal.

I met a client a couple days ago. He asked me to retake on a project that used a very strange platform. “Please take a look at the current launch, José”. What do I do? I browse CSS, accessibility, usability and source code. The apparently awarded CMS was built on a table based layout and it didn’t show the same results over different browsers. And you say: “OK, so what’s the problem with designing on top of a table layout ?” If it works on many browsers and you can’t afford web standards, well… keep it! But if it comes out as a complete junk like this, I would be ashamed of myself. The website looks like this in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

Any napoleon with this level of costumer fidelity – yea, the costumers say they have really great products! my gosh… — ought to be better prepared to face the real challenge, when users start to realize there are many browsers to choose from, new technologies improve user experience and designers and developers create the web differently with more care for performance, beauty and usability. Are you a designer reading this? Take a look at web standards and cross-browser experience. I’m sure you’ll like it.

For a start off, I arrived at 9h30 at the office so I would start being taught the all-fancy Microsoft’s SharePoint… yet the boss only came at midday! I wasted 2,5 hours for nothing. When the guy actually came he said I should start with SharePoint right away. The thing is he didn’t actually say I was to do it all by myself. After some dirty stuff we did lifting closets, me and a newcomer as well were given a book (not two – one per brain – , just one) and told: “Start doin’ it, you have this virtual machine to start playing around…” What the hell?! Where’s our training? This slide-like 250 page book with something we didn’t put our brains into whensoever in our entire life and we just «start doin’ it»??

The worst thing was the machine I was given: it didn’t work! I had to format it myself and spend 2 hours trying to make it work with the virtual machine up and running as well..! After all that was clear, I tried to actually run the VM; result: it didn’t work again. One more hour to fix it and it finally goes up. What’s my final suprise? The VM is slow as a turtoise!

I can’t work like this! Somebody make time go bullet fast because I had enough of this and it’s been only my first day! I start to get a little scared of what might happen the next weeks.

I’m looking for a company that wants PHP or Rails with special concern on page design. Just talk to me and I’ll be right over. No fancy crap like Microsoft please!